The development of future smart electricity grids is driven by efficiency and climate targets and economic benefit for producers, retailers and customers on the deregulated electricity market. Since most investments will be made by grid owners acting as regulated monopolies, it is unclear how they will get return on their investments. Can demand response programs create cost reductions for the grid owner that help motivate the investment in smart grids? Two cases of cost reduction opportunities are evaluated assuming that peak loads are reduced by a demand response program: optimization of cable dimensions for lower peak loads when building new grids, and avoided investments in reinforced capacity in the existing grid. Potential cost reductions are estimated for the two example cases, using financial and technical data for Fortum's local distribution grid in Stockholm. The result shows that reducing the capacity in the cables by 70-80 % only brings down investment costs by 3-4 %, since the common expense for excavation outweighs the incremental cost of cables. Over-capacity means increased redundancy and flexibility to increase load in the future, which are valuable features for a grid owner.Regarding investments in the existing grid, a substation that needs replacement because of overload is analyzed. Assuming a continued trend of steadily increasing load, a 34 % peak load reduction would delay the investment 20 years, which is in turn worth 900,000 SEK in 2010 prices.

Rapporten är ett resultat av en undersökning som initierades av att man i Motala kommun ville sluta använda sig av kloramin för dricksvattendesinfektionen vid sitt ytvattenverk i Råssnäs. Man ville utesluta ammoniak vid dricksvattenframställningen och övergå till att enbart desinficera med hypoklorit. Råssnäs tar sitt råvatten från Vättern och det färdiga vattnet distribueras sedan upp till 30 km från verket. I samband med att man ville göra förändringen var man intresserad av att veta hur man utför desinfektion vid andra vattenverk med liknande förutsättningar d.v.s. råvatten från Vättern och långa distributionsvägar. Med utgångspunkt från dessa förutsättningar valdes kommunerna Askersund och Jönköping samt kommunalförbundet Skaraborgsvatten ut för att tillfrågas om hur man där arbetar med sin dricksvattendesinfektion. Undersökningen begränsas av att endast tre kommunala aktörer deltog men dessa bedömdes vara de som bäst uppfyllde de angivna förutsättningarna. Från de avgivna svaren kan man dra slutsatsen att båda metoderna, desinfektion med kloramin eller enbart hypoklorit, används och tycks fungera bra. Problem uppstår i första hand under den varma delen av året då vattnet i ledningarna värms upp vilket kan främja den mikrobiella tillväxten. Åtgärden blir i sådana fall i första hand att utföra stödklorering ute på nätet. Desinfektions metoderna mella kommunerna/kommunalförbundet varierar. I Askersund doseras endast hypoklorit och man har inga erfarenheter från andra metoder. I Jönköping har man i sitt största verk nyligen övergått från kloramin till enbart hypoklorit och fick i samband med detta under den första tiden många klagomål på dålig smak och lukt hos dricksvattnet. Problemen avtog efterhand och efter ett halvår hade klagomålen upphört. Man tror att störningarna uppstod då biofilmen i ledningsnätet regerade på den kraftigare kloreringen för att därefter gradvis anpassa sig till nya förhållanden. Skaraborgsvatten använder sig av både förklorering med hypoklorit samt efterklorering med klor och ammoniak. Halva klormängden bildar då kloramin med ammoniaken medan den andra halvan reagerar med en momentan desinficerande effekt. De erhållna svaren visar också att UV-ljus används, eller planeras att användas, och byggs ut inom verksamheten hos alla de tre tillfrågade dricksvattenproducenterna. Rådet till Motala blir att man provar att avsluta ammoniakdoseringen och övergår till enbart hypoklorit. Dock bör man under en tid efter förändringen, för att undvika att störningar uppstår, utöka kontrollen av vattnet genom extra provtagning på lämpliga platser ute i ledningsnätet och då framförallt efter sommaren då vattnet är som varmast. Det är även lämpligt att förbereda för att kunna stödklorera, förslagsvis ute vid tryckstegringsstaioner, samt att ytterligare bygga ut användningen av UV-ljus ute på nätet vid t.ex. tryckstegringar och reservoarer.

Logistik handlar om att skapa effektiva materialflöden. Distribution är den del av logistikflödet som har stor betydelse för företags konkurrensförmåga och lönsamhet. Hur företag väljer att distribueras sina tjänster eller produkter har en stor påverkan på deras transportkostnader och leveransservice.   Hos Draka Kabel Sverige AB finns i nuläget ingen uttalad leveransstrategi gällande uppbokning av inrikestransporter, utan detta sker efter kundönskemål. Detta leder till många små leveranser som resulterar i högre transportkostnader och ostrukturerade arbetsrutiner. I dagsläget samarbetar Draka Kabel Sverige AB med en speditör, Höglands Logistik AB, och all inrikes vägtransport sker med speditören. Kontraktet med speditören löper ut sommaren 2012 och Draka Kabel Sverige AB finner nu ett intresse att fokusera på om det finns möjligheter att sänka kostnaderna vid kommande speditörupphandling genom förbättringar i leveransprocessen. Syftet med detta examensarbete är att minimera inrikestransportkostnaderna med bibehållna servicenivåer genom att ta fram ett underlag som ska kunna användas till den kommande fraktupphandlingen.   För att uppnå syftet har en detaljerad undersökning och en kartläggning av företagets inrikes leveranser genomförts och som använts för att illustrera det nuvarande upplägget. Detta har skett med hjälp av intervjuer, observationer och dokumentinsamling.  I nulägesbeskrivningen framkommer att företagets produkter kan delas in i två separata flöden - trummor och pallgods. Det som skiljer dem åt är lagerplaceringen och hur de emballeras och hanteras vid transportuppbokning. Genom att kartlägga kundorderprocessen identifierades två olika möjligheter till att skapa effektivare leveranser. Den första möjligheten handlar om att införa fasta leveransdagar för kunden med hjälp av en geografisk regionindelning som bygger på utlevererade volymer till kund. Detta skulle medföra en ökad möjlighet till konsolidering av det egna godset, innan transport bokas hos speditör. De positiva effekterna som kan urskiljas är att företaget får en mer strukturerad orderprocess, en förbättrad planering för transportuppbokningen och en ökad leveransprecision till kunden. Den andra möjligheten handlar om att identifiera alternativa speditörer som kan erbjuda Draka Kabel Sverige AB sina transporttjänster. Genom att studera godsets utseende kunde ett separatflöde som handlar om gods upp till 35 kg identifieras. Genom att sedan studera de olika speditörernas marknadssegment kunde en alternativ speditör urskiljas, Posten Logistik AB, som är nischade inom paketgods. Om Draka Kabel Sverige AB skulle använda sig av Posten Logistik AB som en ny speditör skulle detta innebära minskade kostnader vid emballering, en möjlighet till att kunna spåra sitt gods under transport samt en försäkran om bibehållen leveransprecision och leveranstid.   Avslutningsvis anser vi att företaget ska arbeta med fasta leveransdagar till kund grundade på geografiska regioner och använda sig av dessa för att förhandla transporterna region för region. Vi anser även att kabelemballeringen bör ses över och alternativa lösningar användas.

Physical distribution networks are integral parts of modern supply chains. When faced with a question of which node in a network is more important, cost immediately jumps to mind. However, in a world of uncertainty, there are other significant factors which should be considered when trying to answer such a question. The integrity of a network, as well as its robustness are factors that we consider, in making a judgement of importance. We develop algorithms to measure several properties of a class of networks. To accelerate the optimization of multiple related linear programs, we develop a modification of the revised simplex method, which exploits several key aspects to gain efficiency. We combine these algorithms and methods, to give rankings of the relative importance of nodes in networks. In order to better understand the usefulness of our method, we analyse the effect parameter changes have on the relative importance of nodes. We present a large, realistic network, whose nodes we rank in importance. We then vary the network's parameters and observe the impact of each change.

Toronto is experiencing a food renaissance. Although there has been a resurgence in the popularity of local food and specialty products, neither supermarkets nor farmers’ markets have adequately responded to meet the demand. Contemporary retail infrastructure, comprised mainly of supermarket chains and independent farmers’ markets, is insufficient. In the supermarket reliable global imports are valued over regional products that support local farmers and the economy. Chain retailers prefer global players that produce consistent results in order to feed consumers who have become accustomed to seasonless food. On the other side of the spectrum, farmers’ markets do not generate the economy of scale required to keep the food industry afloat. As a convenience-driven consumer culture, the limited hours and seasonal variability associated with the farmers’ market typology inadequately fills the desire for locally sourced products. Simultaneously, wholesale distribution nodes have created a closed circuit of food delivery. In Toronto the main distribution point of wholesale produce stems from the Ontario Food Terminal, which feeds the city’s myriad grocery stores and restaurants. This ‘just in time’ food delivery system relies heavily on moving food in and out as quickly as possible. How can it be re-imagined as a dynamic space of interaction among a diverse group of vendors, purchasers and consumers? This thesis looks at the spatial impact of the food distribution network in Southern Ontario by re-imagining the Ontario Food Terminal as an organism of both local and global agricultural distribution. It attempts to respond to the growing desire of the public for locally sourced food products and fill a void that is currently missing: that of a reliable network to support local agricultural products. Local food can only survive by leveraging the global system. The reconciliation of two seemingly incompatible systems - local and global - will create a dynamic hybrid that captures the authenticity lacking in contemporary food culture.

Floating feeder resonances are one of the new challenges being put forward by the renewable energy based distributed generation (DG) installations. Generally, the harmonic injection from DGs are within IEEE standard 519-1992 limits. Although the harmonics are within the IEEE limits, they are a potential threat to power equipment’s insulation system integrity due to floating feeder resonances. There is a reasonable probability that at some point in time the feeder resonant frequency may coincide with one of the injected harmonics. Such phenomenon amplifies the specific harmonic causing additional stress on the equipment’s insulation system. In this thesis a feeder resonance study is done on the IEEE 34 bus distribution feeder to show the resonance shift problem in a DG loaded distribution feeder. Electric field study is then carried out on transformer winding to assess the dependence of electric field on harmonic distortion. At first the acoustic emission (AE) technique is employed to identify the change in the electric field distribution inside the winding at higher frequency. The AE technique together with the acoustic waveguide is utilized to locate the partial discharges under power frequency and high frequency operation. The results show a change in partial discharge (PD) location, which implies that the electric field redistributes in the transformer winding at higher frequency In order to further understand the electric field distribution, a high voltage air core coil is modeled by R, L and C ladder network. The R, L and C parameters are solved by finite element method and finally the electric field is calculated by computing the node potentials in the ladder network at various frequencies. The electric field results show that at high frequency distortion the electric stress enhances between fourth and fifth layer of the winding which may give rise to a PD activity; hence degrading the insulation. An aging experiment is also performed to understand the impact of high frequency distortion on transformer paper insulation. Paper samples are taken from a field aged transformer. They are aged for 72 hours under power frequency and various distorted waveforms. Dissipation factor is used as a comparison tool for paper samples before and after aging. Results show that paper samples aged under distorted waveforms showed a double increase in dissipation factor compared to the samples aged under power frequency.

Streaming data have gained considerable attention in database and data mining communities because of the emergence of a class of applications, such as financial marketing, sensor networks, internet IP monitoring, and telecommunications that produce these data. Data streams have some unique characteristics that are not exhibited by traditional data: unbounded, fast-arriving, and time-changing. Traditional data mining techniques that make multiple passes over data or that ignore distribution changes are not applicable to dynamic data streams. Mining data streams has been an active research area to address requirements of the streaming applications. This thesis focuses on developing techniques for distribution change detection and mining time-changing data streams. Two techniques are proposed that can detect distribution changes in generic data streams. One approach for tackling one of the most popular stream mining tasks, frequent itemsets mining, is also presented in this thesis. All the proposed techniques are implemented and empirically studied. Experimental results show that the proposed techniques can achieve promising performance for detecting changes and mining dynamic data streams.

Recently, there have been many initiatives to incorporate advanced controls, two way communications, digital technologies and advanced power system components in the operation and control of power distribution systems. These initiatives are aiming to realize what becomes known as the “Smart grid”. It is expected that a Smart Grid will lead to enhancement in the reliability and efficiency of the power system. The movement towards the Smart Grid is motivated by many factors; the need to integrate more renewable power to mitigate the global warming, the increasing interest in connecting more distributed generation (DG) as a way to postpone large investment in transmission and bulk generation, and the need to increase the reliability of the power system overall to minimize disturbance costs. It is the overall goal of this research to introduce novel distribution system operation techniques to assist in the effort of realizing the “Smart Distribution System” in both normal and system restoration modes. In particular, three main operation functions are dealt with in this research work; Voltage Control, Reactive Power Control and Distribution System Restoration. First for Voltage Control, a reliable and efficient method is proposed to control voltage regulators in order to enable the regulation of multiple feeders with diversified loads using only one regulator provided that no DG is connected to the feeders. Regulator’s tap is selected based on the solution of an integer linear optimization problem. The method has a closed form solution for the optimal tap; that is valuable for real time operation. In addition, necessary condition for feasible solutions is examined. Next, a novel coordinated voltage control scheme is proposed to enable the voltage regulator to efficiently regulate the voltage of multiple feeders in the presence of DGs. The proposed technique is based on placing a Remote Terminal Unit (RTUs) at each DG and each line capacitor. These RTUs coordinate together, through communication, and form a multi-agent system. An important contribution of this research is that the proposed scheme provides the minimum hardware requirement to efficiently estimate the voltage profile of a feeder with DGs. The proposed scheme enables the integration of more DGs into the system by, efficiently, coordinating the operation of voltage regulators and DGs to mitigate voltage rise problem caused by the connection of DGs to the system. Second, for Reactive Power Control, a decentralized reactive power control scheme is proposed to optimally control switched shunt capacitors of the system in order to minimize system losses and maintain acceptable voltage profile. The proposed algorithm provides capacitors with “Advanced Voltage Sensing” capability to enable capacitors to switch in and out according to the global minimum and maximum voltage of the feeder. The proposed technique utilizes the same RTU used for voltage control and relies on the voltage profile estimation technique proposed in this research for the coordinated voltage control. In addition, novel decentralized algorithm is proposed to estimate the feeder voltage profile change as a result of injecting reactive power at the capacitor bus. The proposed reactive power control scheme can be used to coordinate the operation of any number of capacitors connected to the distribution system. Combining voltage control and reactive power control schemes, generalized coordinated voltage control is proposed to coordinate between DGs, shunt capacitors and voltage regulators in order to achieve optimal voltage control for the distribution system and solve the steady state voltage rise problem caused by the connection of DGs, hence, allowing more DGs to be connected to the system. Over and above, the proposed generalized coordinated voltage control enables the realization of a new operation-time DG connection impact assessment concept. Based on this concept, the system will carry out a real-time assessment and decide, based on the available control actions, the maximum DG power that can be allowed to connect to the system at particular operating conditions. This new concept will allow great flexibility to the connection of DGs, most notably, when, due to a change in system configuration, the DG is needed to be connected to a feeder other than the one it was planned for during the planning stage. The last operation function dealt with in this research work is the distribution system restoration. Novel decentralized distribution system restoration scheme is proposed. The proposed scheme is based on dividing the distribution system into zones based on the availability of disconnecting switches. Each zone is controlled by an Agent. The restoration is done based on the coordination between these Agents. Proposed communication protocols between Agents are discussed in details. The goal of the proposed restoration scheme is to maximize the restored power while preserving the radial structure of the distribution system and without exceeding the thermal limit of any equipment in the system. As the proposed technique does not assume any supervision from any central point, this technique will enable the realization of a self-healing distribution system restoration.

One of the most fascinating recent developments in research has been how different disciplines have become more and more interconnected. So much so that fields as disparate as information theory and fundamental physics have combined to produce ideas for the next generation of computing and secure information technologies, both of which have far reaching consequences. For more than fifty years Moore's law, which describes the trend of the transistor's size shrinking by half every two years, has proven to be uncannily accurate. However, the computing industry is now approaching a fundamental barrier as the size of a transistor approaches that of an individual atom and the laws of physics and quantum mechanics take over. Rather then look at this as the end, quantum information science has emerged to ask the question of what additional power and functionality might be realized by harnessing some of these quantum effects. This thesis presents work on the sub-field of quantum cryptography which seeks to use quantum means in order to assure the security of ones communications. The beauty of quantum cryptographic methods are that they can be proven secure, now and indefinitely into the future, relying solely on the validity of the laws of physics for their proofs of security. This is something which is impossible for nearly all current classical cryptographic methods to claim. The thesis begins by examining the first implementation of an entangled quantum key distribution system over two free-space optical links. This system represents the first test-bed of its kind in the world and while its practical importance in terrestrial applications is limited to a smaller university or corporate campus, the system mimics the setup for an entangled satellite system aiding in the study of distributing entangled photons from an orbiting satellite to two earthbound receivers. Having completed the construction of a second free-space link and the automation of the alignment system, I securely distribute keys to Alice and Bob in two distant locations separated by 1,575 m with no direct line-of-sight between them. I examine all of the assumptions necessary for my claims of security, something which is particularly important for moving these systems out of the lab and into commercial industry. I then go on to describe the free-space channel over which the photons are sent and the implementation of each of the major system components. I close with a discussion of the experiment which saw raw detected entangled photon rates of 565 s^{-1} and a quantum bit error rate (QBER) of 4.92% resulting in a final secure key rate of 85 bits/s. Over the six hour night time experiment I was able to generate 1,612,239 bits of secure key. With a successful QKD experiment completed, this thesis then turns to the problem of improving the technology to make it more practical by increasing the key rate of the system and thus the speed at which it can securely encrypt information. It does so in three different ways, involving each of the major disciplines comprising the system: measurement hardware, source technology, and software post-processing. First, I experimentally investigate a theoretical proposal for biasing the measurement bases in the QKD system showing a 79% improvement in the secret key generated from the same raw key rates. Next, I construct a second generation entangled photon source with rates two orders of magnitude higher than the previous source using the idea of a Sagnac interferometer. More importantly, the new source has a QBER as low as 0.93% which is not only important for the security of the QKD system but will be required for the implementation of a new cryptographic primitive later. Lastly, I study the free-space link transmission statistics and the use of a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) filter to improve the key rate by 25.2% from the same amount of raw key. The link statistics have particular relevance for a current project with the Canadian Space Agency to exchange a quantum key with an orbiting satellite - a project which I have participated in two feasibility studies for. Wanting to study the usefulness of more recent ideas in quantum cryptography this thesis then looks at the first experimental implementation of a new cryptographic primitive called oblivious transfer (OT) in the noisy storage model. This primitive has obvious important applications as it can be used to implement a secure identification scheme provably secure in a quantum scenario. Such a scheme could one day be used, for example, to authenticate a user over short distances, such as at ATM machines, which have proven to be particularly vulnerable to hacking and fraud. Over a four hour experiment, Alice and Bob measure 405,642,088 entangled photon pairs with an average QBER of 0.93% allowing them to create a secure OT key of 8,939,150 bits. As a first implementer, I examine many of the pressing issues currently preventing the scheme from being more widely adopted such as the need to relax the dependance of the OT rate on the loss of the system and the need to extend the security proof to cover a wider range of quantum communication channels and memories. It is important to note that OT is fundamentally different than QKD for security as the information is never physically exchanged over the communication line but rather the joint equality function f(x) = f(y) is evaluated. Thus, security in QKD does not imply security for OT. Finally, this thesis concludes with the construction and initial alignment of a second generation free-space quantum receiver, useful for increasing the QKD key rates, but designed for a fundamental test of quantum theory namely a Svetlichny inequality violation. Svetlichny's inequality is a generalization of Bell's inequality to three particles where any two of the three particles maybe be non-locally correlated. Even so, a violation of Svetlichny's inequality shows that certain quantum mechanical states are incompatible with this restricted class of non-local yet realistic theories. Svetlichny's inequality is particularly important because while there has been an overwhelming number of Bell experiments performed testing two-body correlations, experiments on many-body systems have been few and far between. Experiments of this type are particularly valuable to explore since we live in a many-body world. The new receiver incorporates an active polarization analyzer capable of switching between measurement bases on a microsecond time-scale through the use of a Pockels cell while maintaining measurements of a high fidelity. Some of the initial alignment and analysis results are detailed including the final measured contrasts of 1:25.2 and 1:22.6 in the rectilinear and diagonal bases respectively.

In order for quantum key distribution (QKD) to move from the lab to widespread adoption, it will need to be compatible with existing infrastructure. To that end, I demonstrate an implementation of QKD with entangled photons on active, standard telecommunications ber. By using a wavelength outside of the conventional band used by telecommunications tra c, I achieve minimal disruption to either the quantum or classical signals. In an attempt to extend the reach of QKD with entangled photons I studied the parameters of these systems. I developed a model for the number of measured two-fold coincidences that maximizes the secure key rate (SKR), for any combination of system parameters, using a symbolic regression algorithm based on simulated data. I validated this model against experimental data, and demonstrated its usefulness by applying it to simulations of QKD between the ground and a satellite and in optical bers. Finally, I worked on a step towards a new entangled photon source that is a hybrid between visible and telecommunications wavelengths by building a hybrid single photon source.